Willie's boy stands tall on his own

Lukas Nelson and Promise of the RealTurner Hall
Milwaukee, WI
November 1, 2011

Story and photos by Jennifer Bronenkant

Starting a music career as the child of a famous musician has proved
to be a difficult path for some who have fought the constant
comparisons to the parent and accusations about coat tail riding while
trying to carve out their own niche. Lukas Nelson, son of legend
Willie Nelson, must have to deal with these same issues, but is already
creating his own music with a natural grace at the young age of 22.

He certainly has everything going for him: talent, good looks with a
winning smile, a strong work ethic on top of an amazing pedigree. He
grew up traveling the country on his father's tour bus the Honey
Suckle Rose while being exposed to legendary musicians giving him the best
music education one could hope for.

Nelson's music is soulful rock with influences like Stevie Ray Vaughn,
Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and certainly from his father and famous
friends.

Still working his way up in the business, Nelson and his band Promise
of the Real performed before a small audience at Turner Hall on
Tuesday night. The show was just $10 and several audience members I
met were fans of Willie Nelson, but did not know his son's music.

The audience seemed to be impressed from the start with Nelson's music
and incredible guitar playing, but remained politely seated at cafe
tables leaving a large dance floor area in front of the stage empty.
It was a rather strange scene with this band totally rocking out on
stage while facing a huge empty "barrier" between them and the audience.

After the first few songs, it was clear that Nelson was winning them
over. Starting out with original music then covering Pearl Jam, Jimi
Hendrix and Bob Dylan, Nelson showed off his guitar prowess in his
high energy performance. Not only is he highly skilled on the
instrument, he is an incredibly physical and emotional player. He is a
true showman.

Then he slowed it down a bit with a three song acoustic set starting
with "Wanted To Try" where you could hear the strong family influence
in both vocal and guitar style. He followed that with an acoustic
version of his biggest song "Four Letter Word" which had fans singing
along for the first time of the night, but it was during his emotional
rendition of "Fathers and Mothers" it was clear that he had won the
audience over completely. For a few particularly touching lines of
this song, Nelson slung his guitar behind his back and sang a cappella
creating a magic moment that brought the audience to a still silence
followed by audible gasps of appreciation.

Back on the electric guitar, he rocked through more original numbers
along with the Rolling Stones and Muddy Waters covers. During his song
"Toppers," a few fans finally went up and danced in front of the stage
which drew a sincere thank you from Nelson.

Instead of the usual routine of the band leaving the stage and
returning for an encore, Nelson just invited the audience to get
closer and said they would play more music. The audience eagerly
accepted the invitation and spent the encore dancing and cheering.

There are certainly advantages to coming from a famous family
including exposure to important people, the opportunity to play to
large audiences when with his father and even the use of one of the
old Honeysuckle Rose custom tour buses, but in the end this kid is
making fans based on his own abundance of talent, drive and ability to
connect with and engage an audience.